Gordon Brown is running a weak and dysfunctional government that peddles 'barmy ideas', according to a damning report by senior civil servants published today.

The withering critique of the Prime Minister's leadership found that the Government has a 'conspicuous lack of a single coherent strategy' and that Downing Street is a bully with 'few tools beyond the brute force of political edict'.

The report by the Institute for Government reveals widespread frustration in Whitehall at what is seen as Mr Brown's obsessive micro-management and lack of vision.

It was drawn up after interviews with 60 senior mandarins and funded by Labour's largest donor Lord Sainsbury.

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A senior official in one department said: 'What comes out of No 10 is lots of barmy ideas. It's the worst possible kind of policy making, in which Downing Street says: "Here is a problem, let's have a kneejerk reaction to it tomorrow."'

Conspiracy: Former Labour General Secretary Peter Watt

Another mandarin said: 'It's no great secret that Gordon is not strategic. The centre is certainly dysfunctional.'

One retired mandarin who worked for every premier since Margaret Thatcher said the bunker mentality under Mr Brown was 'worse than under previous prime ministers'.

Also yesterday, former Labour general secretary Peter Watt claimed that Mr Brown had access to a £50,000-a-year private slush fund that let him run his own secret polls as he plotted to supplant Tony Blair.

Mr Brown's allies say the so-called 'fund with no name' was used to conduct economic polling while he was Chancellor.

But Mr Watt believes it was part of his campaign to replace Mr Blair, by running polls on their relative strengths. The Tories yesterday demanded answers about why the pot of money was not declared as a separate fund under Mr Brown's control.

Tory MP Greg Hands wrote to Mr Brown asking him to clarify the spending, arguing that Mr Watt's claims could give rise to a probe by the Parliamentary sleaze watchdog.

He pointed out that MPs are supposed to declare 'financial or material support' amounting to more than £1,000 from a single source.

A Labour Party spokesman said: 'All donations received by the Labour Party are declared in accordance with the relevant rules and guidelines.'